Fantastic Four Vol 1 197
** ** ** ** Supporting Characters: * Antagonists: * * * * * Other Characters: * SHIELD ** Locations: * ** Cynthian Associates headquarters * ** *** * Items: * * * * Doom's * Vehicles: * | Notes = Continuity Notes * Reed has a hard time placing his captor's face because he is not yet aware that this man is actually a clone of Doctor Doom, as revealed in . The last time Reed saw Doom's unscathed face was back in his college days first depicted in the flashback from (and later retellings). * Reed's powers get restored in this issue, his stretching powers began fading with age starting in until he totally lost them in . * This is the first time that the origin of the Fantastic Four, originally told in , gets updated with the times. Here it is stated that it was not simply cosmic rays that caused the Fantastic Four's transformation, but because of sunspot activity affecting the Van Allen Belts. * Reed's narrative suggests that the Fantastic Four's original space flight occurred before any other manned flights into space. Per the Sliding Timescale this should be considered a topical reference, a holdover from the Fantastic Four's origins (originally depicted in ) * This story expands on the cause for the Fantastic Four's mutation, expanding on the original theory posited in , which simply states that it was due to cosmic rays. This story also goes on to state that unusual sunspot activity and additional radiation from the Van Allen belt also caused the mutations. This is later called to question in - posits that the cause of the cosmic ray storm was actually a message being transmitted by a creature called the Entity who was seeking out those who seek universal truths as he did. This same storyline also shows Reed Richards going back to the dawn of the universe and his views of himself and his teammates were ingrained on the original cosmic rays that would eventually imprint the Fantastic Four's unique abilities. * Doom's statue is fashioned him in royal garb, as seen in . * The dis-figuration of Doctor Doom's face is a bit of a tale in and of itself: Doom claims he was horribly disfigured when his device to contact the neither world literally blew up in his face, as originally seen in . However, showed that Doom only received a minor scar across his cheek, but later horribly burned his face when he foolishly put on the iron mask made for him by the Tibetan monks while it was still red hot. * Red Ghost goes into some of his history here: ** He references his various battles with the Fantastic Four up to date, such as his first battle with them on the moon in , his failed attempt at revenge from and when he was manipulated into attacking Reed and Sue's wedding in . ** It's interesting to point out that here the Red Ghost somehow remembers his battle during the wedding when the Time Displacer device was supposed to erase everyone's memories of the attack, a fact that was confirmed in and . Perhaps somehow those stolen memories were restored. ** Red Ghost refers to his last defeat against Iron Man in . Publication Notes * This issue is reprinted in other comics and books, see references for more info.This story is reprinted in the following comics/TPB's: * | Trivia = | Recommended = | Links = }} References